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Mister America
Mister America is an award-winning 2007 Georgeland comedy movie directed by and starring Adam Ryan, with co-stars Erica Cameron, Amy Becker, Eugene Levy and Hank Azaria. The film was the most successful Georgeland film of 2007, grossing more than G$140 million in box-office returns. The film was also released in the United States to critical acclaim but poor commercial success. Plot Rob Harmon (Ryan) is a struggling local actor in Santa Christina whose most recent performance, in a theatre restaurant, goes horribly wrong when he accidentally takes an ecstacy tablet instead of a painkiller before the show. Fired and humiliated, Rob's bout of unemployment (the latest of many) is the final straw for his girlfriend Jessica (Cameron) who leaves him. Depressed, Rob turns to a friend, Thomas (David Heaney) for advice. David suggests Rob go to America and attempt to "break into Hollywood". There are few Georgelanders working in Hollywood, and with a good agent, David theorises, Rob should have no trouble finding work. David, who is not terribly bright, suggests that Jessica will come back to Rob when he is a famous Hollywood star. Because his judgement is slightly impaired due to alcohol, Rob agrees. Though he has second thoughts en route to the airport, seeing Jessica holding hands with another man on the street toughens his resolve and he flies to Los Angeles. In LA, Rob searches for an agent and finally finds one in Marty Berkowitz (Levy), who is shabby, slightly shady and desperate for a client. Since Marty is the only client willing to take an unknown foreigner as a client, Rob accepts the rather painful and embarrassing work Marty is able to line up for him. By accident, Marty sends Rob's resume and head shot to a major Hollywood director, Brent Wills (Azaria) who, wanting to cast an "unknown", invites Rob in to audition. Not knowing Rob is a Georgelander, Wills asks him to "drop the stupid accent" in the audition and Rob, momentarily confused, obliges and assumes an American accent. Impressed with the audition, Wills casts Rob in his film. On the set of the movie, Rob meets Larissa Conway (Becker). The movie is a runaway hit, and Rob's performance is praised by critics. Marty, cashing in, begins to sell his client as "a good, wholesome American boy" and Rob is overwhelmed with parts, all of which require him to pretend to be an American. He begins to see more of Larissa and the two become lovers. Larissa, however, still believes Rob is an American. Over time, Rob finds himself unconciously adopting more and more American mannerisms, and he begins to invent a fictious back story for himself about growing up on a farm in Idaho. The more well-known Rob gets, the more he is seen as an "embodiment of American values". Marty, having made a considerable amount of money from the lie, begs Rob to maintain the charade, but Rob begins to have doubts. When the opportunity comes to star in a Wills-directed Hollywood blockbuster, however, Rob changes his mind and becomes more "Americanised" than ever. The marketing for the film promotes Rob as "Mister America" Everything suddenly becomes unstuck when Jessica arrives unexpectedly on the set. Now that Rob is a famous actor, Jessica has come to "get him back", and apologises for leaving him. During their confrontation, however, Jessica demands he "drop the accent" and he does, forgetting that there are plenty of people watching. Rob is "outed" as a fraud, and Wills immediately fires him. Jessica, seeing this, quickly walks out. Rob, dejected, tells Marty he is going back home and goes to tell Larissa, who by now has heard. On the way to her house, Rob is mobbed by papparazi and the story of his fraud is a national, and world-wide, news event. On reaching Larissa's house he apologises for lying to her and to America, on national television. When the cameras cut, and the crew leaves, Rob asks Larissa if she thinks "they bought it?" Larissa, in a thick Scottish accent, says that they did. Rob checks all the papparazi have gone and then closes Larissa's front door. The movie ends with a series of well-known actors, some of whom are real Americans and some of whom are not, each saying in a piece to camera, that they are not, in fact, American. Background Writer-director Ryan had the idea for the movie when his wife, Rachel Simpson, observed that so many Hollywood stars are not Americans but can assume a flawless American accent. Ryan then wrote a draft of the script and wrote the second draft with Simpson, who recieves a script credit in the film. Ryan approached several Georgeland film companies with the script. The company that eventually produced the film, Idiot Films, had also produced Ryan's earlier film, Left Right Out. The company financed the film on condition Ryan star and direct. According to an interview with Ryan included on the DVD release, Levy and Azaria were cast quite against his expectations. Because the film was to be set mostly in Hollywood, Ryan had scouted locations in Los Angeles and at the same time sent the script to several casting agencies in order to cast the American parts. He was surprised to learn that Levy and Azaria had expressed interest and agreed to do the film for a relatively low fee. A number of high-profile Hollywood personalities appear in the film in cameos, mostly in the montage sequence at the end. Ryan has stated that most of these performers "happened to be around" when the movie was being shot, and agreed to participate, in most cases for free. The actors included in the film's end sequence, all "admitting" that they are not, in fact, Americans, include Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey and Rick Moranis, who are Canadian, Gary Oldman and Kate Winslet, who are British Cate Blanchett, who is Australian, and Kelsey Grammer, Chris Rock and Sarah Silverman, who are actually American. The movie's costar, Eugene Levy, is also Canadian, though he did not appear in the montage. Cast Category:Culture